Google Books for OIT Lunch n Learn: Google Book Search

Google Book Help Pages

Google Book Search 

• "A service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google scans and stores in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004." 
• The books come primarily from two sources: publishers and libraries. See the  Partner Program and the Library Project.
• Partner institutions include Harvard, Oxford, the University of California, the University of Michigan, Stanford, Princeton and others...
• Download PDF files of entire books if they are out of copyright (usually that means published before 1923) or if the publisher has opted to allow it. 
• GBS has also partnered with a number of magazine publishers to digitize their archives, including
  Life Magazine, New York Magazine, Ebony, Popular Science, others? 
   
  The Numbers (from the Wikipedia article on GBS)
• On October 28, 2008, Google stated that they had 7 million books searchable through Google Book Search, including those scanned by their 20,000 publisher partners. Of the 7 million books, 1 million are "full preview" based on agreements with publishers. One million are in the public domain. Most scanned works are no longer in print or commercially available.

• On October 9, 2009 Google announced that the number of scanned books is over 10 million
  
  

Pros:            
Excellent way to discover information buried in a book            
Search the full text of books and download a PDF or learn where to borrow or buy them            
Search using phrases, keywords or characters that won’t appear in an online catalog  
Works with Zotero

Cons:             
Quality control in digitization can be inconsistent
Search options for more in-depth searching not yet available
You cannot sort or filter your results
Information on publications is sometimes wrong

Use “Search in this Book” to narrow or focus your search

Find it in a Library: Google Books links to WorldCat where one can search by zip code to locate a copy of a book in the nearest library. 
   Note: WorldCat is a catalog that lists the books and more held by thousands of libraries across the  US and abroad.

Use 'advanced search' for more searching options (date limits, language options, author, title searches)

'About this book' page includes basic  info like title, author, publication date, length and subject.  Some books have additional information like key terms and phrases, references to the book from scholarly publications or other books, chapter titles and a list of related books

Embeds and links - This new toolbar option allows you to embed a preview of a full view or partner book in any of your websites or blogs

Contents drop-down menu - Above the book itself, you'll find a Contents drop-down that allows you to jump to chapters within the book

Download to e-readers and other devices over a million Public Domain Books from Google Books in the open EPUB format (not locked into a particular device)

Clip icon highlight a section of text in any public domain book in Book create a clip from it.

Note:  WorldCat does NOT contain catalog records for every book held at Princeton, so if the title you want does not show up in you should consult the Main Catalog directly.